I have recently been involved with a discussion about ranking on Google on LinkedIn, it has become more difficult to rank highly now, but why, these are my notes on it.
Any web marketer or somebody who owns a website realises (or should realise) the importance of high search engine rankings. Any webmaster who is serious about succeeding online should know that you need to be on the first page of Google results, but more importantly you need to be at positions 1, 2 or 3.
There was a time when achieving high search engine ranks was not really very difficult, all you had to do was create content, didn’t particularly need to be useful or of high quality, dump some keywords in it loads of times and *BANG* you were done and could with little effort rank highly.
Google changed a few its indicators around 2005, so with the same content you just had to throw some links in (predominately from link farms, article networks, blog networks and directories) and you ranked well.
From about 2007, things really started to get really difficult, and as every year marches forward Google just keep making the SEO role more and more difficult.
Today, there is a huge amount of competition out there in all markets. Achieving a page one rank in Google (and the rest of the search engines) has become extremely tough, unless of course you are working smart.
Working smart will often mean here the ability to choose the right set of tools – tools that can rocket your web visibility by taking your website from the lower ends of search engine results all the way to very top. See a previous post - Internet Business Promoter (IBP) Axandra Software Review.
A page one rank is all you need to rocket your web traffic that will blow your mind, however, traffic is just one side of the coin and if you want to convert traffic then you need to look at Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO), but that’s a completely different subject.
Anyway, the real reason why it’s more difficult to rank on Google is that they want to present the very best results to us searchers, and their tweaks and modifications to their algorithm is all just designed to ensure that the sites that are well liked, with the best content rise to the top – it’s that simple really.
Internet Business Promoter (IBP) Axandra Software Review
IBP SEO software, also known as Internet Business Promoter, is still available, but it is now called SEO Goat. The IBP SEO tool still works in much the same way as described below.
I’ll say right from the start that the way most SEO software products try to rank your webpages doesn’t really work. They can help you decide which keywords to use and where they should go on your page, but they cannot magically push you to the top of Google.
IBP SEO software, originally from Axandra, took a slightly different approach. Instead of looking at your page on its own, it analysed the pages already ranking in the top 10 and then gave you a report based on what those successful pages were doing.
I’ve been working in digital marketing for more years than I care to remember and, to be honest, Internet Business Promoter, or IBP as it was better known, was one of the most useful SEO tools I ever used.
Obviously, it’s a good idea to analyse your pages to make sure they are well optimised for your chosen keyword or keywords. But Google doesn’t work from a simple checklist.
Google doesn’t care about your optimisation in isolation. It wants to know how useful your site is compared with the other sites competing for the same search term. That is why it makes sense to compare your page against the current top 10 results.
And that is exactly what the IBP SEO tool does.
How the IBP SEO tool works
Once you enter your primary keyword, IBP runs a search on Google, or your preferred search engine, and analyses the top ranking pages for that term.
It looks at where those pages have used their keywords, how often they have used them, whether they appear in the title, description, headings, bold text, and other important areas of the page.
It then presents the results in an easy-to-follow report. In simple terms, that report becomes your roadmap for updating your page so it can better compete with the pages already ranking well.
This on-page SEO analysis is not the end of it. IBP also looks at inbound links, so you can see whether your page needs more authority as well as better optimisation.
That matters because SEO is rarely just about one thing. A well-optimised page with weak links may still struggle. A badly structured page with strong links may also underperform. You usually need both.
One of the great things about IBP is that it does not promise a shortcut to SEO success. It gives you structured advice, but it still takes time, effort, and a bit of judgement.
And, just like anything else in SEO, there is no guarantee it will work.
What IBP included
IBP was originally a suite of SEO tools from Axandra. These tools allowed you to:
- Research keywords in your niche or market
- Optimise your website for those keywords
- Find link opportunities to help improve rankings
- Track your website’s position in the search results
SEO has moved on since IBP first came out. Google now looks at far more than keyword placement. Page quality, trust, user behaviour, site speed, content depth, links, and overall site experience all play a part.
That does not make IBP useless. Far from it. It just means you need to treat it as one tool, not the whole answer.
Used properly, the IBP SEO software gives you a clear way to compare your page against the pages already ranking. That can be very useful, especially if you are trying to work out why a competitor is above you.
But you should not expect magic.
Even if your page looked very similar to the pages in the top 10, and even if you had more links pointing to it, Google could still be looking at other signals. Design, site structure, bounce rate, time on site, old penalties, brand strength, and content quality can all make a difference.
So all in all, if you are serious about improving rankings and want a structured way to optimise your pages, IBP, now SEO Goat, is still worth looking at.
SEOPressor Review: How to dominate Google search rankings when using WordPress
Effectively SEOPressor vs Yoast SEO
The first time I managed a WordPress site it came with Yoast already ready for me to continue the SEO, and for a long time I really didn’t know any different; but I became concerned that my SEO work wasn’t having the effect that I needed, so I started my search for a new WordPress SEO plugin.
After a fair bit of searching and testing I landed on SEOPressor, and loved it, but if you want a little more detail then hopefully this short review will help.
Start taking a closer look at SEOPressor today, click here for more information.
So which SEO plugin is best for your WordPress website?
If you’re just starting out or you’re simply looking to make the most out of your website content with videos, articles, categories, tags etc. then Yoast SEO should be good enough for you.
On the other hand, if you are serious about marketing your website and squeezing that little bit extra out of your SEO, then I would highly recommend using SEOPressor Connect.
For the basic stuff they can both pretty much do the same thing, but never versions of SEOPressor now comes with some really great features that really does push your rankings higher.
Choose up to 3 Keyword/Phrases
OK, it’s the free Yoast SEO plugin that only lets you choose a single keyword/phrase for SEO purposes, but to get multiple keyword focus on Yoast costs a minimum of $69. Whilst you do pay for SEOPressor, the standard version lets you focus on three keywords. Making it easier if you don’t know (or not sure) which term to rank for immediately.
Real-time LSI Recommendations
The best part of the latest version of SEOPressor is real-time LSI recommendations; it will actually recommend Latent Semantic Indexing keywords to use, this is important as Google uses LSI to better understand what your webpages and website is all about. Once you enter your primary search term(s) into SEOPressor the LSI keyword recommendations start suggesting other useful keywords and terms you should be using in your content to get Googles full attention and to ensure that you really dominate the rankings for your chosen term(s). This is not available on any other WordPress SEO plugin and is a priceless addition to WordPress.
Real-time Keyword density
If you’re heavily into your keyword density (which I’m not) then this is a really useful feature as you see your keyword density on the fly, it can be really useful if you want to get the keyword density down you can see it going down as you add more content in real-time rather than having to ‘run’ a request.
Over optimisation alerts
If you are working on a page that is overly optimised (which could seriously damage ranking), you’ll get a real-time alert letting you know that something has gone wrong and you need to look more closely at your optimisation.
Social SEO
Usually when you share content, the social platform you are using will automatically pick and display the Description of the page, whilst this can sometimes be all you need, but social channels are more personal that webpages and Google search, so it makes sense to alter key landing pages to add a little more personality into your description. This is particularly true if you sell to Businesses and Consumers – typically Businesses might only see you on Twitter and LinkedIn (SEOPressor doesn’t actually support LinkedIn yet), but you could in theory have a more professional description on Twitter to that on Facebook to help talk to your different target audiences.
Internal Link Manager
SEOPressor allows you to effortlessly fix, build, and manage the perfect internal link structure to increase your reader’s retention and reduce bounce rate.
Other great features:
Overall
SEOPressor just seems to have been built with Google rankings in mind, and take it for someone that has been in the digital marketing space for more years that I care to remember, this works the closest to how Google actually thinks and ranks, making it a clear winner in my books.
SEOPressor Review
This is a quick video I put together that explains some of the key differences.
The first time I managed a WordPress site it came with Yoast already ready for me to continue the SEO, and for a long time I really didn’t know any different; but I became concerned that my SEO work wasn’t having the effect that I needed, so I started my search for a new WordPress SEO plugin.
After a fair bit of searching and testing I landed on SEOPressor, and loved it, but if you want a little more detail then hopefully this short review will help.
Start taking a closer look at SEOPressor today, click here for more information.
So which SEO plugin is best for your WordPress website?
If you’re just starting out or you’re simply looking to make the most out of your website content with videos, articles, categories, tags etc. then Yoast SEO should be good enough for you.
On the other hand, if you are serious about marketing your website and squeezing that little bit extra out of your SEO, then I would highly recommend using SEOPressor Connect.
For the basic stuff they can both pretty much do the same thing, but never versions of SEOPressor now comes with some really great features that really does push your rankings higher.
|
||||
Choose up to 3 Keyword/PhrasesOK, it’s the free Yoast SEO plugin that only lets you choose a single keyword/phrase for SEO purposes, but to get multiple keyword focus on Yoast costs a minimum of $69. Whilst you do pay for SEOPressor, the standard version lets you focus on three keywords. Making it easier if you don’t know (or not sure) which term to rank for immediately.
Real-time LSI Recommendations
The best part of the latest version of SEOPressor is real-time LSI recommendations; it will actually recommend Latent Semantic Indexing keywords to use, this is important as Google uses LSI to better understand what your webpages and website is all about. Once you enter your primary search term(s) into SEOPressor the LSI keyword recommendations start suggesting other useful keywords and terms you should be using in your content to get Googles full attention and to ensure that you really dominate the rankings for your chosen term(s). This is not available on any other WordPress SEO plugin and is a priceless addition to WordPress.
Real-time Keyword density
If you’re heavily into your keyword density (which I’m not) then this is a really useful feature as you see your keyword density on the fly, it can be really useful if you want to get the keyword density down you can see it going down as you add more content in real-time rather than having to ‘run’ a request.
Over optimisation alerts
If you are working on a page that is overly optimised (which could seriously damage ranking), you’ll get a real-time alert letting you know that something has gone wrong and you need to look more closely at your optimisation.
Social SEO
Usually when you share content, the social platform you are using will automatically pick and display the Description of the page, whilst this can sometimes be all you need, but social channels are more personal that webpages and Google search, so it makes sense to alter key landing pages to add a little more personality into your description. This is particularly true if you sell to Businesses and Consumers – typically Businesses might only see you on Twitter and LinkedIn (SEOPressor doesn’t actually support LinkedIn yet), but you could in theory have a more professional description on Twitter to that on Facebook to help talk to your different target audiences.
Internal Link Manager
SEOPressor allows you to effortlessly fix, build, and manage the perfect internal link structure to increase your reader’s retention and reduce bounce rate.
Other great features:
SEO Score: SEOPressor let's you set a lower limit for SEO score, if the content you have created doesn't pass the limit it won't let you publish it.
SEO Checklist: SEOPressor uses a checklist approach so that it becomes easy to create great content time after time, useful if you have a team of content developers and you want the same quality from the team.
Overall
SEOPressor just seems to have been built with Google rankings in mind, and take it for someone that has been in the digital marketing space for more years that I care to remember, this works the closest to how Google actually thinks and ranks, making it a clear winner in my books.
|
||||
SEOPressor Review
This is a quick video I put together that explains some of the key differences.
Best of luck with your SEO :-)
Get Google reviews easily
Reviews on Google could have a small (and positive) impact on your search engine rankings, but more importantly they allow potential customers to see what a great service you offer, which will help drive traffic to your website and aid conversions.
We all trust what other people say about businesses (we tend to ask for personal recommendations ourselves), so the reviews act to reinforce the positive messages that you put out to the market. In addition, businesses can strengthen their relationship with their market by engaging with them directly through their reviews on Google.
Leaving a review is quick and easy to do, and can be left on a desktop, smartphone or tablet and you’ll start to see those wonderful review stars in your listings as reviews get left for you, they make your business really standout from the crowd.
Remember, people can leave a review for you on Google whether you like it or not, so you are best engaging with the reviews to ensure that you get the most from it.
Here is my simple three step process for getting more positive reviews on Google and use it to create more business for yourself.
Step 1: The most important thing is to ensure that your business information is verified on Google as only verified businesses can respond to reviews.
Here is more information on how to verify your business on Google (https://support.google.com/business/answer/2911778)
Step 2: Encourage customers to write a Google review for you.
Simply remind your customers once they have had a positive dealing with you to write a review for you on Google, reviewers do need a Google account, so it can sometime mean that not everyone can write a review for you (I know, it seems crazy that some people out there don’t own a Google account!).
If they search for your business name on Google, they should see a full panel in the results with your businesses details on them, they just need to click the “Write a review” button.
You could always email them a link to your page to make the whole process easier for them!
Step 3: Be active and engage with reviewers
It helps people to decide to leave a review if they see that you engage and thank reviewers, others will see that you value the input of customers and will want to leave you their reviews too.
How to rank for RankBrain
Launched in early 2015, RankBrain is Google’s machine learning technology, it uses artificial intelligence to help Google understand exactly what you want to find with your search and delivers you highly relevant search results.
So how do you rank for RankBrain?
Actually the answer is rather simple and something that I’ve been advocating for years now, we know that RankBrain is effective for the 15-20% of the queries that Google has never seen before; this clearly indicates that these are natural language queries, typically long typed out queries or more likely voice queries asked on smart devices (smartphones, tablets etc.).
So optimising for these is easy, just write in natural language, write for humans, write for your target audience. If in doubt read your content out load to see if it makes sense (again, something I’ve been advocating for years), if it doesn’t make sense then your content isn’t correctly optimised and it need rewriting.
As a content writer, you tend to find that the highest quality content is written in a very natural way that is conversational.
So that’s it, check your content, check that it reads well and you will improve your Google rankings.
Data or Creativity?
Had an interesting chat with an old colleague of mine the
other day who came through the old school marketing ranks (to be fair, so did
I), he spent a lot of time in a senior data role in a telecoms company we both worked
for; and he has kept the strong ethos that marketing should be strongly
data-led first and foremost, it should be the driving force behind the strategy
and tactics of the business.
I disagree to some extent, there are obviously times when
data is incredibly important (predominately if you are doing some qualitative research
on what your target market(s) think about you or you are analysing analytics
from campaigns or web site etc), but this should only inform you and not be the
single driving force behind any major business decisions or campaigns.
Data (just like technology) enables opportunities for
marketers, but the creativity is where the real value is created.
I think we see this problem occurring everyday, big brands push
their flashing advertising on us, but very little of it sticks in the minds of
the consumers – they lack the creativity needed to be memorable (and therefore
successful), I’m sure the data says the execution was perfect, but if it doesn’t
hold consumers interest or create that desire, you’ve lost the war.
So yes, data is important, let it drive discussion and
debate in the boardrooms (I’m all for that), but never let it drive business
decisions; creativity is what’s needed to drive the creation of the value, and
it’s this value which will ultimately decide whether your strategies and tactics
are successful.
From Just One Pound
Going off at a slight tangent this post, but at a recent networking event I became interested in the scalability of businesses and in particular how businesses can start from nothing and grow into huge financial concerns.
I was talking to a group of small business owners, one of which was the very proud owner of small retail business that literally started with one pound and had grown it from there into a very sizeable business indeed and is now turning over many thousands of pounds in about 18 months.
Unfortunately, she had some to a sticking point in which she was struggling to get the business to grow further; it all seemed to stem from the fact that she had started the business with no real vision of what she wanted the business to be or do and so she didn’t really have any idea on how she wanted it to grow in the future.
We talked for a while and I realised that as well needing some assistance with asking the difficult strategic questions (who is the customer?, what do they value?, how is she value better than her competitors? etc), she needed something very visual to grab hold of in order to help her move forward.
As she started the business with just £1, I started to look at business milestones from the point of view of how that simple one pound coin, had grown. How quickly did she double that pound? With that £2 how didn’t did she double that to £4 etc, I started to draw it out for her and she liked the concept.
I’ve replicated it below, the simple idea is that from a single £1, doubling your money each step, it’s just 21 steps to you making your first £1m.
She’s pinned this on her office wall and she marking out these 21 milestone steps, dating each step as see goes, she has found visualisation of her business incredibly powerful, she is also undertaking a proper strategic review to ensure that she is making her money doing the very best activities.
I was talking to a group of small business owners, one of which was the very proud owner of small retail business that literally started with one pound and had grown it from there into a very sizeable business indeed and is now turning over many thousands of pounds in about 18 months.
Unfortunately, she had some to a sticking point in which she was struggling to get the business to grow further; it all seemed to stem from the fact that she had started the business with no real vision of what she wanted the business to be or do and so she didn’t really have any idea on how she wanted it to grow in the future.
We talked for a while and I realised that as well needing some assistance with asking the difficult strategic questions (who is the customer?, what do they value?, how is she value better than her competitors? etc), she needed something very visual to grab hold of in order to help her move forward.
As she started the business with just £1, I started to look at business milestones from the point of view of how that simple one pound coin, had grown. How quickly did she double that pound? With that £2 how didn’t did she double that to £4 etc, I started to draw it out for her and she liked the concept.
I’ve replicated it below, the simple idea is that from a single £1, doubling your money each step, it’s just 21 steps to you making your first £1m.
She’s pinned this on her office wall and she marking out these 21 milestone steps, dating each step as see goes, she has found visualisation of her business incredibly powerful, she is also undertaking a proper strategic review to ensure that she is making her money doing the very best activities.
Volkswagen cannot possibly survive the emissions scandal unscathed
The emissions scandal surrounding the battered car
manufacturer, Volkswagen, will hit such heights that the brand will be unlikely
to survive as it is today, it will have to change.
It’s been about ten days now since the use of a “defeat
device” by VW to cheat emissions tests around the work surfaced, in that time
we have learnt that over 11m vehicles are affected which in turn have been
spewing millions of tonnes of emissions and poisonous gases into the atmosphere.
Their CEO has already gone, and at the moment three other
senior executive are under investigation, all their brands have been implemented
and it will cost them £billions to sort out.
Not only will they have to recall all of their cars for
fixing, but they have fines coming out of their ears and VW owners are clamouring
for compensation.
Volkswagen had one of the strongest brands in the auto
industry before all this, so what is likely to happen to it?
The brand impact
Volkswagen were a trusted brand, but the admission that they
purposely cheated the emission tests to con the car industry and consumers will
hurt them badly, VW deliberately set out to break the law.
On a positive note, it looks like consumers still some faith
in the brand as retailers in the UK haven’t noticed any major dip in the public
looking to purchase the brand, although now we know for a fact that this isn't
just a US problem and we have 1.2m of these vehicles in the UK – this may
change.
But experts do expect sales to decline considerably.
So can Volkswagen survive?
Volkswagen has promised to spend at least £4.7bn to help
“restoring consumer trust” in the brands they control, my gut feeling is that
they need considerably more than this.
In a statement the brand said its “top priority” was to
avert damage to customers and it will inform the public constantly and
transparently on further progress. They
want to win back trust and credibility.
But whilst the Volkswagen brand is unlikely to die as a
result, it’s not impossible that it could disappear!
What is more likely is that the country could be
restructured and broken up, some of its brands could be sold off. The global fines could be anywhere between £15bn
and £25bn – selling off parts of the business could help the Group to recoup
much of that money.
It could turn into a case of not just protecting the brand,
but protecting the car business from going under!
Link Building in 2015
Links, the lifeblood of websites, without these your website will not not highly on search engines, if you can't be found on search engines then you'll not get the visitors your business desperately needs.
Link building is fraught with difficulty, recent Google updates mean that if you get links from a poor website, then it will negatively effect your ranking.
But how can you get these all important links?
Two recent posts on LinkedIn help show the way:
These articles offer practical advice to help you improve your search engine rankings.
Good Luck
Link building is fraught with difficulty, recent Google updates mean that if you get links from a poor website, then it will negatively effect your ranking.
But how can you get these all important links?
Two recent posts on LinkedIn help show the way:
These articles offer practical advice to help you improve your search engine rankings.
Good Luck
Web Design tips to make your life incredibly easy
Learn from the best. Leading web design experts reveal the secrets of the trade, these are now yours to learn, follow, implement and win.
Every great web designer has a true secret or two that they use time and time again to provide the best service for their clients, this insider knowledge is vital when you are looking at your own design project.
It's quite a collection. Enjoy
The Optimum Line Length
The Baymard Institute suggest that 50-75 characters per line. This sort of length energises readers and keeps them engaged in your content, and we know that the more engaged readers are, the more likely they are to stay on your page and take the action that you want them to take.
Use Video to show visitors something real
Kendra Gaines at WebdesignerDepot.com rightly argues that visitors are wanting a connection to business and brands, video allows us to do this by showing them something real and of substance. I couldn't agree more.
Use only Appropriate Images
Graham at Effective Website Design makes the sensible point that images need to be carefully selected, and the process itself shouldn't be overlooked or undertaken quickly. “Do not use images indiscriminately, lots of images can lose the page focus.” says Graham, and he's right, there is nothing off putting that images on pages that have no context to the subject matter.
Responsive Design - it's the future
Nick Pettit at treehouse wrote a compelling blog post last year about Responsive Design, and steps readers through the concepts in a very practical manner.
Every great web designer has a true secret or two that they use time and time again to provide the best service for their clients, this insider knowledge is vital when you are looking at your own design project.
It's quite a collection. Enjoy
The Optimum Line Length
The Baymard Institute suggest that 50-75 characters per line. This sort of length energises readers and keeps them engaged in your content, and we know that the more engaged readers are, the more likely they are to stay on your page and take the action that you want them to take.
Use Video to show visitors something real
Kendra Gaines at WebdesignerDepot.com rightly argues that visitors are wanting a connection to business and brands, video allows us to do this by showing them something real and of substance. I couldn't agree more.
Use only Appropriate Images
Graham at Effective Website Design makes the sensible point that images need to be carefully selected, and the process itself shouldn't be overlooked or undertaken quickly. “Do not use images indiscriminately, lots of images can lose the page focus.” says Graham, and he's right, there is nothing off putting that images on pages that have no context to the subject matter.
Responsive Design - it's the future
Nick Pettit at treehouse wrote a compelling blog post last year about Responsive Design, and steps readers through the concepts in a very practical manner.
User Flow in Web Design
Adrian Fraguela at Silver talks about thinking about the user experience in web design, one of the more interesting areas they look at briefly is User Flow, that is the need to consider exactly how users will move around your site and ensuring that your design allows them to interact with the site successfully.
Adrian Fraguela at Silver talks about thinking about the user experience in web design, one of the more interesting areas they look at briefly is User Flow, that is the need to consider exactly how users will move around your site and ensuring that your design allows them to interact with the site successfully.
That's it for this post. Do you have a secret to your web design success? Don't be selfish, share it with others in the comments below!
Digital Marketing Predications for 2015!
The life of a busy digital marketer is a varied one, and knowing where to put your marketing effort is an important factor, but where should you plan to put those efforts?
Everything is changing - and will continue to do so - remember that the only constant is change.
Technology, business models and consumer behaviours change in the blink of an eye; old tactics no longer work (or aren't as effective as they once were).
So as a digital marketer, what should you be considering for the year ahead?
In this article on LinkedIn, I've tried to capture some of the key elements that are important to Digital Marketing in 2015 - enjoy.
Stop asking ‘How’ Google rank websites and start asking ‘Why’.
Seriously, if you are interested in improving your ranking for your website then you must stop trying to guess what ingredients are in the Google ‘secret sauce’.
What makes up the Google algorithm takes up way too much thinking time, just accept the fact that Google pushes websites through their machinery and out pops the ranking for your site.
A better question to ask is “Why do Google rank sites the way that they do?”
From a users perspective Googles aim of is very simple; it wants to understand what information you want to see when you query its search engine and then it wants to ensure that it shows you the very best results.
Why is understanding this a better way to understand Google?
What makes up the Google algorithm takes up way too much thinking time, just accept the fact that Google pushes websites through their machinery and out pops the ranking for your site.
A better question to ask is “Why do Google rank sites the way that they do?”
From a users perspective Googles aim of is very simple; it wants to understand what information you want to see when you query its search engine and then it wants to ensure that it shows you the very best results.
Why is understanding this a better way to understand Google?
For Google to do it's job properly it needs to ensure that:
- It understand what your site is all about
- When visitors get to it they engage with it (good time on site, low bounce rate etc)
- They potentially share your content
This all means that you can stop focussing your precious time on tying to get others to link their sites to you, spamming forums and blogs with your links and stop tweaking META Tags and focus on the important area … your content.
With the right content Google will understand your pages and be able to determine whether you can satisfy a search query well. So your content needs to be able to answer visitor’s questions, the content needs to be exactly what the visitor is expecting to see when they click on your link in the search results.
This means that you need to ensure that you answer the questions you think that the market has for your products and services – this might actually mean developing a formal FAQ section, but it also means ensuing that they easily understand what your website and pages are all about, and how exactly you can help them.
Seriously, understand what Google is trying to do and help them to help you, and you will start to rank well within Google. Period.
This means that you need to ensure that you answer the questions you think that the market has for your products and services – this might actually mean developing a formal FAQ section, but it also means ensuing that they easily understand what your website and pages are all about, and how exactly you can help them.
Seriously, understand what Google is trying to do and help them to help you, and you will start to rank well within Google. Period.
Web Site Usability - what do you need to consider!
Web usability is all about taking a look at sites, pages and designs to better understand the customer journey - the reasons why visitors are there in the first place, understanding any barriers that stop visitors from taking their desired action.
In essence, your web site should provide your visitors with an efficient and enjoyable user experience.
Web pages should be self explanatory and obvious.
When considering the basics for web page usability, I like to ask the following simple question 'Would my Mum be able to use it!'. You see my mum wasn't a tech head, she wasn't particularly well educated in these modern technologies, so she wasn't at all web savvy; and if we think of our potential visitors in this way then we will always ensure that our sites are a simple (and easy) to use as possible.
Web pages should be self explanatory and obvious.
The MUM Test
When considering the basics for web page usability, I like to ask the following simple question 'Would my Mum be able to use it!'. You see my mum wasn't a tech head, she wasn't particularly well educated in these modern technologies, so she wasn't at all web savvy; and if we think of our potential visitors in this way then we will always ensure that our sites are a simple (and easy) to use as possible.
Basically, if my mum could navigate a web site and get what she wanted, then it was a good site.
Web site Structure (appearance) – what your visitors see and interact with.
Whitespace – clean space that makes your site easy to view, read, understand and use. Good use of space can draw the visitors eyes to the important parts (and links) of the site.
Noise – is information fighting for attention or does any other element vie for the visitors attention (strong contrasts next to text for example (i.e. bold graphics or images next to key information can force eyes away from this text)).
Length – short page length, visitors shouldn't have to scroll too far to get to the information that they want, information “below the fold” will not get seen as much as information above it.
Consistence – across navigation, fonts, layout, colour etc
Images – need to be relevant and compelling.
Functionality – how well the site interacts with visitors and visitors with the site.
Organisation of information – and links. Do users know where they are and where to get to the common information they might need? Can visitors get to the action you want them to take easily. Are the web pages split into clearly defined areas.
Speed – how fast the site loads (< 2 second is ideal) as customers may leave if they have to wait to view the information on your site. Site speed is also important for good Google rankings.
Interactivity – how well can visitors interact with your site, does search work well for example?
Key Areas to consider
Intent - what are you visitors intending to do on your site?
Whitespace – clean space that makes your site easy to view, read, understand and use. Good use of space can draw the visitors eyes to the important parts (and links) of the site.
Noise – is information fighting for attention or does any other element vie for the visitors attention (strong contrasts next to text for example (i.e. bold graphics or images next to key information can force eyes away from this text)).
Length – short page length, visitors shouldn't have to scroll too far to get to the information that they want, information “below the fold” will not get seen as much as information above it.
Consistence – across navigation, fonts, layout, colour etc
Images – need to be relevant and compelling.
Functionality – how well the site interacts with visitors and visitors with the site.
Organisation of information – and links. Do users know where they are and where to get to the common information they might need? Can visitors get to the action you want them to take easily. Are the web pages split into clearly defined areas.
Speed – how fast the site loads (< 2 second is ideal) as customers may leave if they have to wait to view the information on your site. Site speed is also important for good Google rankings.
Interactivity – how well can visitors interact with your site, does search work well for example?
Things visitors should never ask themselves
- Where am I?
- Where do I start?
- Where did they put ….?
- What information do I need on this page?
- Why did they call it that?
- Why is that there?
Common questions to ask
- What is the first thing you notice on the site? Is your USP clearly visible?
- Is there a clear visual hierarchy? (headers, important information etc) – newspapers do this REALLY well!
- Are the pages consistent (everyone knows instictively how to read a newspaper and what the headlines mean, bold intro text, main story, caption under images, we know to go to the back pages for the sport and somewhere close to the middle for TV listings etc). Familiarity is reassuring.
- Do you think it's too cluttered?
- Are you having a hard time finding the information you want?
- Does the site feel well organised?
- Do you have to scroll to get to important information?
- Is the site slow?
- What do you think of the fonts, colours and images?
- Can you easily search for product information?
- Can you easily find the contact information?
The Search Engine Ranking factor
I've already mentioned that site speed is important for Google ranking, but also IF your site doesn't look very good to visitors they are likely to press the BACK button on their browser quickly. This visitors action is classed as a Bounce by Google, and a high Bounce rate will go against you in rankings!
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